ArticleBMC biology2014
Evolutionary origin of gastrulation: insights from sponge development.
Article in BMC biology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.
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41 citing papers in PubMed, 99 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Early transcription factor activation distinguishes symbiotic from non-symbiotic bacteria during microbiome processing in a sponge.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Developmental system drift and modular gene regulatory networks shape gastrulation inLife science alliance · 2025Article
- Post-Embryonic Development and Formation of the Heterocoelic Aquiferous System in Two Species of Calcareous Sponges (Calcarea, Porifera).Molecular reproduction and development · 2025Article
- The Buds of Oscarella lobularis (Porifera, Homoscleromorpha): A New Convenient Model for Sponge Cell and Evolutionary Developmental Biology.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2024Article
- The evolution of gastrulation morphologies.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2023Review
- On the origin of the functional versatility of macrophages.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- Gene activation of metazoan Fox transcription factors at the onset of metamorphosis in the marine demosponge Amphimedon queenslandica.Development, growth & differentiation · 2022Article
- MRTF specifies a muscle-like contractile module in Porifera.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Phototransduction in a marine sponge provides insights into the origin of animal vision.iScience · 2022Article
- Feedforward regulatory logic controls the specification-to-differentiation transition and terminal cell fate during Caenorhabditis elegans endoderm development.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2022Article
- Novel protein from larval sponge cells, ilborin, is related to energy turnover and calcium binding and is conserved among marine invertebrates.Open biology · 2022Article
- Alternative neural systems: What is a neuron? (Ctenophores, sponges and placozoans).Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Article
- Placozoan fiber cells: mediators of innate immunity and participants in wound healing.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- The origin of animals: an ancestral reconstruction of the unicellular-to-multicellular transition.Open biology · 2021Review
- Article
- The Shared Origins of Embodiment and Development.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2021Article
- Phagocytosis in cellular defense and nutrition: a food-centered approach to the evolution of macrophages.Cell and tissue research · 2019Review
- Structure, development and evolution of the digestive system.Cell and tissue research · 2019Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe evolutionary origin of gastrulation--defined as a morphogenetic event that leads to the establishment of germ layers--remains a vexing question. Central to this debate is the evolutionary relationship between the cell layers of sponges (poriferans) and eumetazoan germ layers. Despite considerable attention, it remains unclear whether sponge cell layers undergo progressive fate determination akin to eumetazoan primary germ layer formation during gastrulation.
resultsHere we show by cell-labelling experiments in the demosponge Amphimedon queenslandica that the cell layers established during embryogenesis have no relationship to the cell layers of the juvenile. In addition, juvenile epithelial cells can transdifferentiate into a range of cell types and move between cell layers. Despite the apparent lack of cell layer and fate determination and stability in this sponge, the transcription factor GATA, a highly conserved eumetazoan endomesodermal marker, is expressed consistently in the inner layer of A. queenslandica larvae and juveniles.
conclusionsOur results are compatible with sponge cell layers not undergoing progressive fate determination and thus not being homologous to eumetazoan germ layers. Nonetheless, the expression of GATA in the sponge inner cell layer suggests a shared ancestry with the eumetazoan endomesoderm, and that the ancestral role of GATA in specifying internalised cells may antedate the origin of germ layers. Together, these results support germ layers and gastrulation evolving early in eumetazoan evolution from pre-existing developmental programs used for the simple patterning of cells in the first multicellular animals.
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